The Red Mirror
by Vaccinium Oxycoccos
Summary: Ruby wakes up in an abandoned and frozen Mantle. She's alone, with one exception. Can she trust her partner in this strange mirror of reality? Can they find their way back? Can they solve the mystery of where everyone else has gone? Can they even survive in a barren wasteland that looks like a city? Rated M for the cold creeping terror of the unknown. And probably some sexuality.
1. The Pale Girl

"Ruby!"

_Who's calling my name?_

"Ruby, where are you?"

_Who is that? Why do they want to find me?_

"Ruby, we've got to go! We're out of time!"

_What's going on? Where am_ _I?_

"It's no use! She's gone!"

"No, I need to find her!"

"Yang, we need to go now!"

"I'm not leaving her!"

_Yang? Where is Yang going?_

"I'm not leaving without her! Go if you want to, but I'm staying until I find Ruby!"

"I'm staying too, then."

"Blake..."

_Blake? Blake is here too? Where is here?_

"You're both idiots! Gah! I can't leave you here! Fine! I'll stay too!"

"Thank you, Weiss..."

"Just... just start looking for her so we can get out of here already!"

_Even Weiss? My... my team... what are they doing here?_

"Ruby!"

"Ruby, where are you!"

"Come on, Ruby, we need to get out of here!"

_No... no, they need to get out of here... or they... they'll die..._

_Like me..._

* * *

Ruby opened her eyes. She was resting on the cold hard pavement, a street, it looked like Mantle. It was quiet. Snow was gently falling all around her, slowly covering the ground, but there was no sound. No sirens, and no Grimm, but no people either, except for her own slow breathing. She sat up and glanced around. The buildings seemed undamaged, at least any more than was normal. The lights were all out, though. And it was cold. She wrapped her arms around herself, shivering in the chilling air that was starting to crawl into her skin. Grabbing her cape, she wrapped it around her body, tightly winding it around her hands to keep them warm, though it didn't really work. She needed to get inside.

Walking to the nearest door, she reached out and knocked. The sound echoed through the street. She looked around behind her for anything that might try to sneak up on her, but there was nothing. Once she was doubly sure that she was alone and no one was answering, she reached out and touched the door. The door creaked open before she'd even had the chance to turn the knob. She could see markings on the frame, now that it was open. The door had been forced some time in the past, but how long she couldn't know. She stepped into the house as quietly as she could, taking Crescent Rose from behind her back. Instinctively, she flicked the light switch, but nothing changed. The power was out then. That would explain the cold as well, if Mantle's heating systems were offline. Maybe she could find a way to turn the power back on. Then she wouldn't freeze to death. Maybe a bed in one of the houses would do for now, however, since she didn't know how to restart an entire city's power grid. But not this house. It wasn't secure.

Deciding that, since she hadn't heard any sounds other than the ones she made even after she knocked on the door, there probably wasn't anything in the house, Ruby tried speaking in her normal 'indoor' voice. After a brief fit of coughing, and what looked suspiciously like a cloud of dust coming out of her mouth, she managed to wheeze out a dry "Hello?", but got no response. She called again, a bit louder, and still no response. Either there was no one home, or they were all hiding from her. Tiptoeing through the hall, peeking into the living room and the kitchen, and warily eyeing the stairs leading up, she began to get a weird sense of déjà vu. Other than the door having been forced, there was no sign of struggle or panic, and it was starting to remind her of her encounter with the Apathy. That dreaded memory caused her to shudder. Was it possible the entire city of Mantle had been overtaken by the Apathy? That didn't seem likely.

Suddenly, there was a sound. A heavy thud from above her, like a body falling off a bed. Maybe, just maybe, someone had been sleeping up there, and her calls had woken them up. With how cold it was right now, she wouldn't even be surprised if she had just saved them from freezing to death. Perhaps that was it, the power had just gone out during the night. That was a horrible prospect, considering how many people would have died in Mantle, but the more she thought about it the more it didn't hold up. Mantle was alive at night, people up and about at all times. No way everyone was asleep all at once. Maybe this one, though, was just a person who had been sleeping. Perhaps just bundled up from the cold, and pulling themselves out of bed to see who else was wandering around in this ghost town. She felt like she was fooling herself, psyching herself up or something.

Whoever it was, they needed to know she meant them no harm. She set one foot on the bottom stair, looking up to the next floor. "Do you need help?" No reply. "It's okay, I'm a huntress." Still nothing. "I'm coming up, okay? I'm not going to hurt you." Not unless it was a monster, of course. She would definitely hurt a Grimm. That went without saying. Still, she found every step up the stairs took her longer than the one before. She was sure that any Grimm she might encounter inside a house would be easy for her to deal with, but there was a nagging thought in the back of her mind. She remembered the Apathy. She remembered their power.

Almost to the top of the stairs, she heard a sound like a rasping groan. Something was definitely alive, though it didn't sound like it was in good health, whatever it was. At least she wouldn't be alone. The thing, which either couldn't or wouldn't identify itself, sounded like it was gasping for breath, wheezing even, as it dragged itself across the floor of one of the rooms on the upper floor. Ruby reached the top of the stairs and turned, aiming Crescent Rose at each of the doors in turn. They were all closed, but she could tell the noise was coming from the farthest room. She approached carefully, weapon at the ready, until she was close enough to reach the doorknob. She opened the door, pushing it and letting it creak open slowly on its own as she aimed the barrel of her gun into the room.

There she was. A small pale girl with long white hair sprawled out on the ground in her nightgown, shivering uncontrollably. Ruby dropped Crescent Rose and rushed into the room, grabbing the tiny girl. She was about to put her back in the bed, under the sheets, when she saw that the room's one window was open, letting a chilling breeze into the room. She hoisted the girl up in her arms and carried her out into the hall, going to the second-farthest door and carefully opening it with the girl still in hand. It was another bedroom, but with no window to speak of. Perfect.

Placing the girl gently on the floor, Ruby set to work. This bedroom was empty of people, which was a good sign. So far, no dead bodies. That was always a good day. She pulled the mattress off the bed and pushed it into the corner. The bed and blankets alone wouldn't be enough to ensure their warmth, so she needed to make a nest. Shoving the bed frame aside, she placed one of the blankets on the mattress, then retrieved the girl again, laying her down on top of the blanket before wrapping it around her. She needed more insulation, though, so she started rummaging through the drawers for any piece of clothing she could find. Soon enough, the girl was covered and surrounded in every shirt, every pair of pants, and every sock Ruby could find. She placed the pillows from the bed under the girl's head and prepared to put the second blanket over her, but, thinking twice of it, she reached into the blanket already wrapped around the girl to feel her body. She was still very cold, and while all these things were good for insulating her, all of them were already very cold. There was nothing to generate heat.

Looking around for something that could generate heat, Ruby felt the breeze coming in from the other room and wrapping her arms around her body, shivering violently. She needed to close that door, but first, she ran out into the hall to get the blanket from the other room. She put it on the floor and started going through the drawers in that room as well, finding dresses and skirts among the other things. This was definitely a girl's room. Tossing all the clothes onto the blanket, she dragged the blanket through the hall to her new nest and started piling all of her spoils on top of the girl as well. She then went to close the door at the end of the hallway and hurried back. She couldn't close the door in this room just yet, or it would become too dark to see what she was doing. She needed to finish the nest.

Reaching into the blanket she'd wrapped around the girl, she started peeling off her frozen clothes. They were no good in their current state, practically solid and no doubt contributing to her condition. Throwing them aside, Ruby removed her own clothes quickly and stuffed them into the girl's blanket. They still had Ruby's body heat, so they were the best there was. Grabbing the second blanket from this room and wrapping it around herself, Ruby then closed the door and lay down next to the girl, pulling her closer before covering both of them with the blanket from the other room. This was about all she could think to do. It was cold, almost too cold to fall asleep, but slowly, very slowly, Ruby could feel the girl's body get a little warmer. She wrapped her arms around her, rubbing her back through the blanket to create friction, making more heat. It seemed to be working, as the girl eventually started to move on her own. Ruby was very cold, but not quite freezing, and the girl wasn't freezing any longer either. Bit by bit, their two bodies made enough heat to warm them both up, and then the cloth around them, slowly but surely saving both their lives. Finally, Ruby fell asleep.

Ruby woke up, feeling like over a hundred pounds of soft materials were resting on top of her. She tried to move, then realized that there actually was over a hundred pounds of soft materials resting on top of her. Putting more effort into moving, she sat up. Immediately, the moment the blanket fell, she felt a horrid chill sweep across her bare top. Pulling the blanket back up and shuddering horribly, she glanced over to the empty spot beside her in the bed. The girl was gone. Ruby looked around in a panic, only to find that someone, whoever they might be, had left the door open and an assortment of winter time clothes sitting on the shelf next to the door. She didn't have to be asked twice.

Wearing three layers of thick pants, a sweater, then a jacket, then a coat, then a woolly parka, mittens, and her own socks and boots, Ruby ventured out of the room. As soon as she stepped into the hallway, she could hear sounds coming from the ground floor. Carefully making her way down the stairs, making sure not to lose her balance in her stiff and stuffy new outfit. Once at the bottom, she looked around to see some changes. The front door had a wooden board nailed across it, for starters. That was smart. Even more, there was a candle lit in the living room. It wasn't much light, but it was enough to make a difference. The noise was coming from the kitchen, however, and she had to wonder if the girl had recovered enough to be cooking something. Maybe she was just retrieving boxes of cookies or something. Ruby would settle for cookies.

She entered the kitchen cautiously. The girl was standing on the counter, dressed much like Ruby, though she was obviously wearing Ruby's own clothes under several other layers. All the cupboards were open, and the girl was rifling through various non-perishables looking for anything that was more than just seasoning. She seemed to have already found a few things, as there were some boxes, a couple containers, and a plastic bag already set out on the table. She was scavenging for food. A reasonable move, but it did tell Ruby that this girl probably lived in this house as much as Ruby herself did. Which was none. They were going through someone's stuff for warmth and nourishment, but since it seemed to be necessary for survival, it could be excused.

Ruby stepped into the room, and right away accidentally knocked something over, sending it clattering across the floor. The girl jumped and turned around, her pure white irises catching Ruby off guard completely. The girl had been next to comatose the night before, so Ruby hadn't seen them. She'd been expecting a pale blue like Weiss, but white was something different. The girl looked surprised to see Ruby, and glanced down at whatever Ruby had kicked onto the floor. Ruby tried looking down to see what it was, but her layers upon layers of clothes made it difficult. Finally, she got a look at the pink parasol on the floor.

"Uh... sorry for startling you..." Ruby looked up again. "Hi, my name's Ruby. What's yours."

The girl stared at her for a moment before showing a small smile. She blinked, and her eyes turned pink.


	2. The White Dread

Ruby sat, bundled up tightly in several layers of thick winter clothing, across the table from Neo. There was no doubt that this was the girl she'd rescued the night before, saved from freezing to death with Ruby's own body heat. She would never have guessed, from the way Neo had looked when she found her, that it was in fact the same fiendish tiny woman she'd first met in combat with Roman Torchwick. It felt like forever ago that they'd first met, under Vale's raised highway system. And then they'd met again on an Atlesian airship, just before Torchwick got eaten by a Grimm. She hoped Neo wasn't still sore about that, but she could understand if she was.

Neo, for her part, was making food. Surprisingly, it looked like she was making enough for the both of them. Either that or she was a very hungry woman, which Ruby could also understand if she was. She'd managed to scrounge up a loaf of bread and was making single-slice sandwiches with various condiments. Peanut butter was the main ingredient, but there was one sandwich with honey, another with jam, and she'd started with marshmallow fluff. Variety, it seemed, was very much the spice of life for Neo, who continued making sandwiches without Ruby's help or approval. There were other foods laid out, mostly dry goods like crackers, cookies, and a few jars of various nuts, as well as some cereal, a few fruit and some vegetables. They'd found some things that weren't edible any longer, leading Ruby to wonder how long it had been left like this. The milk had gone bad, the meat was bad, some of the fruits and vegetables had perished and the cheese was hard as a rock.

Pouring herself a bowl of Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Crunch, Ruby started eating the cereal dry. As much as it felt wrong to eat cereal dry, the milk was really _really_ bad. Stale marshmallow cereal was technically not bad, since marshmallows took a very long time to go bad. She was sure she'd read somewhere that they actually never did, and besides, her body could probably use the sugar. Between spoonfuls of crunchy cereal, Ruby looked up across the table to see Neo was stuffing most of the sandwiches into a plastic bag. That was probably wise, as they'd be able to take a large quantity of food with them when they left.

Thinking about it... Ruby wasn't sure where to go when they left this house. She suspected most buildings would be the same as this one, only at best with less fortunate occupants. She hadn't had time to think about it before, but if this building had Neo in it, nearly frozen to death, and Ruby had spent the whole night taking care of her, then it stood to reason that there would most likely be other people in the other buildings, and the night Ruby hadn't spent rescuing them could easily lead to a city full of corpses. That still begged the question of why there were literally no people outside in a busy place like Mantle. Or how Neo happened to be in the one building Ruby decided to enter. Or how Ruby had woken up in the middle of the street like she remembered instead of staying asleep and just never waking up due to the deadly cold. At the very least, she dreaded the idea that, since the person in this building was someone she knew, perhaps the other houses held other people she would know. Had she left someone like Weiss, Blake, or Yang to die?

It left a bad taste in her mouth to think that the house next door might hold the frozen stiff corpse of a close friend, and she'd sacrificed them unknowingly in favor of a hated enemy. The dread of finding out that she had was the one thing keeping her from going to check. Well, that and how low the temperature seemed to have dropped since the sun had risen again. She leaned back in her seat at the table, looking down the hall at the front door. Ice crystals had begun to form around the frame of the door. She looked up at the window in the kitchen, seeing the entire glass pane had frosted over. She didn't need to check to see that the ice forming on the window was already over a centimeter thick. It was bad outside, and trying to visit the house next door was almost a suicidal notion for certain.

The night before, just before she'd fallen asleep, she'd entertained the thought that since she'd saved that girl she would have someone to talk to today, if nothing else. Well, she did, but she wouldn't get much talk back. Neo was notoriously quite. Ruby remembered sending her soaring off the Atlesian airship, set aloft by her parasol into a sky full of hungry Grimm, and the woman hadn't let out even an audible gasp. Whether it was a physiological condition or a conscious decision, Neo didn't talk. Ruby wondered for a second if there was still a way to communicate normally, even if silently. Setting her spoon down in her bowl, she held up her hands and waved them to catch Neo's attention. When the woman paused tying a plastic bag shut, Ruby motioned with her hands a sign that she'd learned from Jaune during one of their leader-to-leader talks. Apparently one of his younger sisters had taught him, having learned it herself due to having a deaf friend. She clasped her hands together in front of her and moved them around in a small circle.

Neo watched the sign closely for a moment before turning back to her work and finishing the knot. Pushing the bag of sandwiches aside, she turned back to Ruby and pointed at her in a sign Ruby felt pretty safe assuming it meant Neo was talking about her. She then made a strange shape with one hand with her thumb and pinkie finger tucked in and the other three fingers sticking out, then running it along in front of her face while repeatedly curling those three fingers up and straightening them again. Ruby wasn't immediately sure what it meant, but judging by Neo's facial expression it was probably some kind of insult. If she remembered Jaune's advice properly, she could probably figure out it's meaning by it's parts, and letters were often central. If that was the case, the three fingers would make it a 'W'.

"Did you just call me Weiss?"

If Neo had been one to make noise, Ruby was sure she would be grumbling if her face was anything to go by as she reached down and picked something up off the floor. It was a notepad, and she had a pencil to go with it. She quickly wrote something on it and handed it over to Ruby. Standing up to take it over the table, Ruby turned it around and found what she'd written in the top corner, in very small letters. She figured it was to save space and paper, which would probably end up in short supply before too long.

The message simply said "Apologize."

Ruby let out a long sigh. She'd seen the way Torchwick and Neo had fought together, how well they worked together. They weren't just coworkers in Salem's plot. They were close, probably at least as close as Ruby was with Weiss or Blake. She looked across the table to see Neo's face was angry. They'd found themselves on opposite sides of a war for the fate of Humanity. If every soldier who ever took another life had to apologize to the friends and family, no one would get anywhere. Maybe that might even be for the better, but in this case Ruby was not about to apologize for something that wasn't her fault. Neo clearly blamed her, but considering how things had gone she didn't think Neo could possibly know what had actually happened to Roman Torchwick.

Handing back the notepad, she solemnly shook her head. "I didn't kill him. The Grimm did."

Neo blinked in apparent shock, left standing there with the notepad held over the table where Ruby had handed it over. It was at that moment that Ruby realized that, if Salem controlled the Grimm, that meant she was indirectly, or maybe directly, responsible for Torchwick's death. If Neo knew this, then there was no question about the conclusion it would lead her to. Even if she didn't know about Salem at all, she'd still have to face the reality that Torchwick had helped, as had Neo herself, in the plot that had ultimately lead to his demise, among many others. For her part, Neo slowly sat down again, and Ruby could see several different emotions play across her face. Eventually, she decided on something else to write down and handed the notepad back.

It now read "For taking off my clothes, dunce."

That was easier to address. "Your pajamas were stuck to you, that's how cold they were. So you're welcome." Neo looked away, almost like she was embarrassed. Maybe she really was, Ruby thought, or maybe she was just diverting from the matter of Torchwick. If she was suddenly realizing that her loss was the fault of the people she'd allied herself with, not her enemies, then she might be pretending it wasn't what she was talking about in order to keep from facing her own mistakes. As far as Ruby was concerned, if Neo was going to realize that she was in the wrong, then the sooner the better. "If Cinder gets her way, there won't be anyone left on Remnant. You do know that, right? The person she's working for will kill everyone."

After a moment, Neo turned back to her. There was definitely a lot of sadness in her eyes now, along with regret. Ruby had no illusions that Neo was sorry for her wicked ways, but she'd take an admission that things would have worked out better for her if she had never thrown her lot in with Cinder. She closed her eyes and stood up suddenly, making Ruby jump in surprise. She grabbed the bag of sandwiches and slung it over her shoulder, then walked around the table and plucked the notepad out of Ruby's hands, tucking it down the front of her parka before leaning down and picking up her parasol. Ruby stood up, turning to watch Neo walk out of the kitchen with her stock of food. Neo froze in the doorway. She turned to look back at Ruby. Her eyes had gone white again.

Moving to Neo's side, Ruby looked out into the hallway to see what had caused Neo to show such blatant fear. The ice had crept up slowly until it was now almost at the foot of the stairs. Alarmed, Ruby turned to see that parts of the shelves and the counter in the kitchen had also turned white from the extreme cold. Everywhere the frigid air could creep in, it was seeping into the house and getting closer and closer to turning them into nothing more than highly detailed ice sculptures, and she hadn't even noticed. They had to get upstairs, back to their nest, the warmest part of the house. Without waiting for permission, Ruby scooped Neo up in her arms and ran to the stairs, pivoting on her heel and leaping away from the visibly advancing cold front. At the top of the stairs, she set Neo down again and pushed her towards the room they'd just been sleeping in. She still had something she needed to get.

Sitting on the hallway floor, Crescent Rose, right in front of the room where Ruby had first found Neo. That whole end of the hall was also white, frozen from the cold air, and Ruby could see the signs of frost beginning to form on her beloved weapon. She got as close as she could before she was hit with a chill like a solid wall, the cold soaking through her thick layers of clothes until she could feel it in her bones. It almost laid her out flat on the spot, but she pressed on, closer to Crescent Rose. She had to pull her hands into the sleeves to keep them from completely freezing, it felt like they would turn to ice and shatter if she didn't. She stretched out her leg and caught Crescent Rose with her toe, sliding it closer to her. She cried out in dismay at the sight of her boot turning white, only to have her mouth and throat hit with a jolt of pain, and she could feel her saliva freezing already. She fumbled for a moment, trying to pick up Crescent Rose with her hands still in her sleeves, but ended up resorting to just kicking it down the hall and running after it. Finally, she was able to bring her hands out of her sleeves again, but found them so stiff that she couldn't properly grasp her weapon. Thankfully, Neo was waiting for her and booted the weapon, and then Ruby, into the room and shut the door behind them.

Leaving Crescent Rose, as well as Neo's parasol, on the floor next to their next, they burrowed into the mound of blankets and loose clothing even as the chill overtook the door to their backs. This was their last hope, and Ruby knew that cold so pervasive it wouldn't be stopped by insulated walls would not have any issues with a pile of clothing. If it kept coming, they would freeze to death in seconds.

But the ice stopped. Just shy of their last line of defense, the cold stopped advancing. It didn't recede, but it had stopped. Every last fiber in their bodies, down to their bone marrow, shivered from the temperature as well as from sheer terror, but they were still alive for the moment.


	3. The One Thing

_"Cut it off! Cut it off now!"_

Neo stared out at the frozen room through a tiny hole in her cocoon. The world around her was ice.

_"Neo, cut it off!"_

She blinked idly, feeling the weigh of the ice crystals that had formed on her eyelashes.

_"Neo... help... me..."_

She had saved herself. She had thought she was the only one left. And when she had resigned herself to freezing to death in the streets, she had woken up to the sound of someone else moving around. With all of her remaining strength, she pulled herself out of the bed, allowing her body to drop onto the floor. She didn't remember getting into the bed, let alone the pajamas Ruby said she found Neo in. All she remembered was being at death's door and then being awakened by someone sneaking around on the floor beneath her. In her desperation, she had alerted Ruby to her presence, which had without question saved her life. She'd repaid that kindness by not taking Ruby's life the moment she was able to move, which probably saved her own life again. Ruby didn't seem too keen on fighting while they were in this curious and horrible situation, and as much as Neo felt a strong distaste for Ruby, she knew her chance of survival was much better with another person beside her, even if only as someone to take the hit for her if something did happen. As much as she would hate to admit it, she believed what Ruby said about Roman's death. That didn't mean she wouldn't sacrifice Ruby for her own safety the moment the situation called for it. There was only one thing she had ever put ahead of herself, and that was gone now.

Beside her, bundled up just as tightly, Ruby leaned in closer to Neo. Her voice was hoarse, having taken damage from the cold air when she went to retrieve Crescent Rose. "Neo... is Neopolitan your first name, or is like, Neo your first name and Politan your last name? Or is it like a pop star thing where you only have one name?"

Neo responded by elbowing Ruby three times.

"Really? So it's your professional name, then. That's pretty cool." She went quiet for a minute before leaning in closer. "You know, I guess I always assumed you were just too smug for talking, but you really are mute, aren't you? Like, I'm really the only person here, and you still talk through writing and gestures."

That didn't especially matter to Neo, when she thought about it, and she had many times. Even if she could talk like normal people, she had long ago decided she liked it this way better and would only speak out loud to people she deemed most worthy of her voice, which came out to a grand total of Roman. To take it a step further, if she'd always been able to talk, she still didn't think she would be talking to Ruby right now. Nothing against Ruby, Neo just didn't like her. Granted, with it out between them that Roman had died at the hands of the Grimm, Neo's reasons for hating Ruby were melting away.

Ruby had apparently grown tired of sitting still. She shook her head until most of the clothes on top of her had tumbled down, a lot of them onto Neo. She held up a sock. "I wonder if this'll freeze midair if I throw it at the door." She threw the sock and they watched it flop through the air until it hit the opposite wall and fell to the floor. To their surprise, it didn't freeze over even then. Ruby pulled back the blanket a bit, poking her head out into the air around them. "I think it's starting to warm up?"

Neo wasn't about to test that theory, but since Ruby's face hadn't turned to ice yet she decided there might be some validity to it. She didn't stick herself out there nearly as much as Ruby had, but she shuffled around some of the clothes so she could get her hands on the plastic bag of sandwiches. The plastic had managed to stay warm enough not to shatter, which was probably the biggest blessing Neo had been given in a very long time. She pulled out a sandwich, not even caring what it had in it, and bit into it. The jam definitely wasn't as lucky as the plastic bag. It has ice crystals all through it. She could only wonder at what had happened to the honey. Still, frozen jam was practically a popsicle. Not the ideal treat given the weather, but far from a travesty.

Without warning, Ruby stood up. "Stay here. I'm going to see if it's safe."

That was horribly reckless, but it was an attitude that had gotten Ruby this far, so Neo allowed it. She also didn't want to get up and risk herself, so there was that. She watched, quietly eating her sandwich, as Ruby stepped forward. She stooped down to pick up Crescent Rose. It was stuck to the ground, but broke free rather easily. After a few moments of punching the heavy metal weapon to get the ice out of it, Ruby pressed a button and watched it unfold... part way. Ruby grumbled unhappily, but it didn't stop her. She started walking over to the door, only to totally lose her footing a moment later and crash down onto her behind, causing the ice under her to crack. From Neo's perspective, it almost looked like the floor itself had cracked. That was worrying.

"Owww... not safe." Ruby groaned in pain as she righted herself, not yet trying to stand. She looked back over her shoulder at Neo and forced a smile. "It's still cold, but the deep freeze is over. We made it." Neo rolled her eyes, but stood up out of the pile of clothes all the same. She didn't want to tear her beloved Hush by trying to pull it free, so she left it where it lay, instead reaching out her hand to Ruby. The girl's smile dropped and she stared in surprise at Neo for a moment. "Uh... thanks." She took the offered hand and Neo pulled her to her feet.

Plopping down on their nest, Neo reached down into her heavy coat and pulled out her pencil and notepad, flipping it open to begin writing. Ruby watched intently as Neo wrote, and she was writing a lot. She had a lot she wanted to say to Ruby. She didn't want to start a fight right now, and she didn't know how easy it might be to set Ruby off. If she was anything like her sister, Neo knew to expect an explosive temper, so she had to be careful how she worded the harder parts. Eventually, she finished and handed the pad to Ruby, who stood and read it quietly.

"I don't need to tell you my backstory, and you don't need to hear it. It doesn't matter if I was bullied, or abandoned, or orphaned, or abused, or raped, or tortured. All you need to know is that I was suffering for so long, it became all I knew. Then Roman came into my life. He took me under his wing and taught me, trained me, fed me and gave me shelter, and he cared for me. The only one who cared. Then he was taken from me. And you can blame the Grimm for it if you want, but that doesn't change the fact that I wasn't there by his side because of you. You claim that you care about people, you want to help people, but you really only want to help people who are in immediate danger from monsters, or 'bad guys'. But the people like me get left behind. We always get left behind. Roman was a hero. He was _my_ hero. And he died because of _you_. That makes _you_ the villain in _my_ story. Wouldn't you agree?"

Ruby took a deep breath, looking back to Neo. The woman was glaring daggers at her. That was a lot to take in, but Ruby wasn't done reading. It went on.

"You only care about the people right in front of you, which is a horrible way to be and still pretend like you care about everyone. There's always a town being attacked by the Grimm. There's always someone dying, always someone being bullied, always someone suffering, and then there's the people who are the reason this system exists. You don't step in until they're the ones being threatened, and that's why you sicken me. That's why I hate people like you. You claim to be paragons of virtue, but refuse to admit that you can't save everyone. You stand atop a tower watching over the kingdom, ignoring the man raping the princess in the tower. People like Roman know they can't save everyone, and they admit it. They put everything into saving one person, making sure that person has a place to live, a place they feel safe, a place they're loved. People like you just take that one good thing away from people like me."

She doubted that was all of Neo's feelings, but it was enough for now. It was enough to understand where she was at right now. It hurt to be told that that was how Neo saw her, and every Huntress in history for that matter, but she could see how someone might reach that point of view. Especially given what hardships she must have gone through in her life. Ruby had always thought everyone had a spark of good in them, but she now realized at some point she'd subconsciously painted people like Torchwick and Cinder with a wide brush titled 'Exceptions'. If even Torchwick had, at some point in his life, seen a sad and broken girl and made the decision to reach out and help her, then, maybe, regardless what his reason was, he had indeed held that spark of good inside him. It stood to reason that, if Neo was the only recipient of that goodness, it would be the only part of him she really saw.

There was one more thing written on the page, the final thought in Neo's tirade. Added on in a way that told her this was Neo's conclusion, almost as if to say 'with all that being said', she had written six simple words. "Thank you for saving my life."

Letting out a sad sigh, Ruby turned and sat down beside Neo. "Yeah... okay. I get it. We're not friends. We probably won't ever be friends." She sat staring at the frozen floor for a minute before continuing. "I know I can't save everyone. I've always known I couldn't save everyone. To be honest, that's always been the source of my worst nightmares. That night, when Penny was torn apart, that's when my nightmare became real to me, for good. I never thought I'd see her again, and then what happened to Torch- ...What happened to Roman. And then Pyrrha. I've had dreams about saving them, and then I'd wake up expecting them to be right there and we were all friends and everything was fine. Like nothing bad ever happened. But then I would see where I was and it would pull me back to reality, like getting hit by a truck. I wanted to save them. I wished I could, and I've always wished I could. All of them. But I know that's impossible."

Before she could continue, Neo grabbed the notepad from her and wrote down a question, this time just showing it to her instead of handing the pad to her. "Why do you act like you can, then?"

Ruby thought about it for a moment, then shook her head. "It's not like that. I learned the hard way that we can't save people all the time. Sometimes, when you try to save someone, you have to stop protecting someone else to do it, and that's when the bad things happen. As much as I would love to be there to stand in front of every bullied child, to offer shelter to every homeless person, and feed every starving orphan, I can't. I'm struggling with giant monsters, trying to keep those people alive long enough for someone else to hopefully step in, but it doesn't guarantee that will ever happen. I'm not blind to that, and I don't think anyone else is either, but no one can be there for every person who's suffering. You can't ask that few people to do that much... but you can ask everyone to do a little." She stopped, turning to look Neo in the eye. "I'm sorry I couldn't save him. That's what I'm sorry for."

Neo stared at her for a while. She wasn't angry anymore, at least not visibly. She wasn't glaring, just looking. When she decided Ruby was earnest, or at least earnest enough, she closed her eyes and lay back in the nest. If Ruby could go that far, then maybe they could be a little more than mutual bait for the Grimm. She didn't think friends was a possibility, and definitely not any sort of real trust beyond just what they needed to stay alive. She still definitely did not like Ruby, and she would never forgive Ruby, but if she could go that far, then maybe Neo could stop hating her.


	4. The Broken Shield

Ruby charged at the door, slamming her shoulder into it and shattering the sheet of ice that had formed over it. The door itself busted open, the latch flying apart and scattering across the hallway and down the stairs. Ruby promptly lost her footing and slid face first into the railing overlooking the stairs. She held on to the railing, doing her best and failing to keep on her feet. Dropping to her knees and clutching to the railing, she looked back into the room where Neo was fiddling with her parasol, rolling it back and forth to try and free it from the ice without damaging it. Eventually, she just stomped on the ice next to her weapon, cracking it. It was much easier to retrieve her weapon after than, though some ice was still stuck to it. She smacked it a few times to loosen up the inner machinations and pressed a button, causing a sharp point to stick out of the end. Neo smiled, causing Ruby to feel somewhat uneasy. This woman had threatened her with that very point in the past, and Ruby was only barely less helpless this time. If Neo decided to off her, there wasn't much she could do to stop her, and there was no wind to carry her off either.

Ruby let out a sigh of relief when she saw Neo was just using it to stab into the ground, breaking up the ice as well as keeping herself steady. Ruby found herself laughing a little at the wild imagination she had, thinking that the only other person around would just try to kill her with no guarantee of being able to survive afterwards, to say nothing of Ruby having saved her life at least twice already. Meanwhile, Neo was having her own difficulties with the iced floors. Breaking the ice up helped some, but it was still just that, ice. She stabbed the end of her weapon into the floor and leaned down to pick up Crescent Rose, since she knew Ruby would need it. The moment she shifted her weight to start lifting the heavy sniper scythe, however, her feet disappeared out from under her and she fell face first onto the solid and cold floor. Ruby was pretty sure she heard a pained yelp when Neo fell, but it might have been her own instinctual reaction to the painful impact.

Neo let go of Hush and pushed herself over, rolling onto her back. She reached up to her face and dabbed her nose with her hand, pulling away to find that she was indeed bleeding. She definitely was not happy about that, but it told of a deeper problem. She had intended to put up her defensive aura, she was sure of it. Why, if she'd put her defensive aura up, had nothing prevented the bloodied nose she was now suffering? Something must have drained her aura significantly enough that either the fall had broken it, or it had already been broken. She considered that the cold might have been draining her aura. If that was the case, she'd have to ask Ruby if the same was happening to her. She pulled out her notepad and wrote down the question, then struggled to flip herself over again and slide the notepad over to Ruby.

"My aura is down. How is yours?"

Ruby looked up in shock, seeing the blood dripping down Neo's face. It wasn't really that much, but it was a problem. Ruby raised her foot, clinging to the railing for stability, and brought her heel down on the icy floor, smashing the coating of ice. She then dug her heel in and pushed it along the floor, scraping off bits of ice to create a foothold for herself. She tested the friction for a moment, and once she'd determined that she finally had a stable place to stand, she got up onto her feet and started kicking at the ice around her, slowly making a path toward Neo that she could actually walk on.

Neo waited, laying down on the iced floor, for Ruby to reach her. Once Ruby was close enough, Neo felt the girl's strong arms pick her up and lift her to safety, where Ruby laid Neo out across her legs. She took a moment to reach around them, gathering their things. Crescent Rose was laid down next to them, Hush was handed to Neo, and then she grabbed the notepad off the floor. Without thinking, Ruby went to put the notepad where it had been stored up till now, causing Neo to have to bat her away from stuffing stuffing it down the front of her coat.

Ruby held up her hands, letting Neo take the notepad for herself. She rubbed the back of her head nervously. "Sorry, sorry, I just... uh, here, let me help with your nose." Again, without thinking, Ruby went in, moving to dab at Neo's nose with her sleeve. Neo didn't help the situation by trying to get free of Ruby's grasp, and ended up slamming her nose into Ruby's hand, resulting in a fresh gush of blood that didn't need to happen. Ruby gasped and held her hands up, away from the feisty and angry small woman who was now clutching her face in pain and glaring death at her. "Oh no, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to- ack! Sorry!"

Poor Neo felt like her face was on fire, and she was starting to wonder if there was any risk of her blood freezing and blocking up her nose. That was not a popsicle she wanted to experience. As much as it hurt to touch her nose, she pinched it closed with one hand to try and stop the blood flow, then shot her best glare at Ruby. In fact, it was really her fault, so Neo raised her free hand and gave Ruby a slap across the face. Ruby sat there stunned, pretty sure her cheek was turning bright red. She'd tried to help and had only made things worse. So she stopped, instead choosing to sit and wait until Neo had finished dealing with it herself. It was a few minutes before she had her nose under control, or at least gave up trying to control it.

It was quiet, while Ruby waited for Neo to settle down, quiet enough that she was able to listen to the silence all around them. There was the low howl of wind coming in through the open window in the room down the hall, the creaking of the frozen floor beneath them, and the sounds of struggle from Neo. Ruby closed her eyes and listened to those sounds, mixing with her own heartbeat. There was nothing else in the world. No humming of electric power, no hint of people or machines outside, no birds or animals. Nothing was out there.

_Drip... drip... drip..._

Ruby's eyes shot open. Her eyes darted back and forth, her head suddenly on a swivel as she tried to determine where she'd heard the dripping sound from. She'd been very distracted from it, but the thought of it reminded her that she was starting to get very thirsty. Any hint of drinkable liquid sent a shock through her brain as her body started to cry out for something it had been quietly waiting for until now. She needed fluids, and no doubt Neo did too. After a few seconds, however, during which Neo had picked up on her sudden alertness, Ruby realized she couldn't hear it anymore. She closed her eyes, listening to it, trying to sort out everything she heard to find where that sound had come from, but it was gone. She was drawn back to reality by Neo, tapping the notepad against her cheek. Ruby opened her eyes, letting out a defeated sigh as she read the message Neo had written.

"What are we doing now?"

Well, that was simple enough to answer. "We should get up, first of all." Neo rolled her eyes at Ruby's response. "If you want, I could carry you downstairs." Neo relented, getting up, and pushing Ruby over onto her back in doing so. Ruby let herself lay there for a moment before getting up herself. She picked up Crescent Rose and followed Neo out into the hall, where they both peered over the railing and down the stairs to the floor below. Ruby rubbed her sleeve against the railing, watching flakes of ice chip off and fall below. "You wanna go slow or take our chances on the stairs?"

Far from impressed by the idea of braving the slippery stairs, Neo just flipped open her notepad and, without even writing something, pointed at the previous thing she'd written. The one about her aura being down. Ruby looked away. This wasn't a good situation, and she knew it. If Neo's aura was down, something must have caused it, and the only thing they'd dealt with recently enough to be responsible was the flash freeze, but even that had been maybe an hour or two ago. Ruby wasn't exactly able to keep time without a clock. Time seemed to move slowly when they had been sitting alone and huddling for warmth, so perhaps it hadn't been as long as she thought. Even then, for it to have sapped their aura...

No... Ruby was well trained with her aura, she never forgot to put it up. It was reflex for her when her adrenaline was high, which it certainly had been when they were running for their lives from the freezing air. She absently held her hand to her throat, which was still a long way from fully recovering from inhaling the frigid air. Her aura hadn't protected her then either. Her aura hadn't protected her from anything since she woke up.

"I think... we have to face the fact that our auras may be gone. For now or for good, I don't know, but they're gone." Neo gave her a horrified look, which quickly turned to one of clear disbelief. Ruby shook her head. "Whatever is happening, our auras are gone. The defensive aura, at least. It's strange, I know we both used our semblance already, but when it came to protecting us our auras were just... not there."

So then it was true. Their auras weren't responding. That could easily turn the somewhat comical image of them trying to make their way down the icy stairs into a matter of life and death, with one possible outcome being a pair of broken necks. Ruby leaned over the railing, once again looking down the stairs, looking for any inspiration on how to speed up the process. They needed to make their way down there. The faster, the better, as she was now keenly aware of her growing need for water. Neo must have been in even more dire need, considering the state she'd been in when Ruby found her, unless she had managed to find something to drink in the kitchen before Ruby woke up. Anything that was in there before would most certainly be frozen solid now.

"We need something to drink, or nothing else is going to matter."

Neo nodded thoughtfully, then started writing in her notepad again, leaning on the railing to support the pad. The air was split by the harsh sound of a loud crack, and both of them froze. There was a second where nothing moved, both of them too scared to try anything, then the railing shattered, dropping them over the edge and onto the stairs. Ruby flailed her arms in the air, falling down and landing on the stairs with a crash as ice and steps shattered, and Ruby was pretty sure something inside her also broke. The staircase collapsed under the impact, turning their world into a tangled mess of icy shards, wooden splinters, bruised limbs, and quite possibly a cracked rib or two.

_Drip... drip... drip..._

When Ruby came to, she was laying on her back in the hallway. She couldn't have climbed out of the wrecked staircase on her own, so Neo must have pulled her out. Holding her hand up to her forehead, she wiped away sweat and, for a second, didn't even think about it. Then she held her arm up over her, looking over it. Something was definitely wrong. Unless Neo had gone and taken off most of Ruby's clothes, there was no way she should suddenly be down to just her undershirt and a pair of pants. She sat up, looking down at her feet. Her toes wiggled freely in the cold air. No... no, not cold. Warm air. Ruby looked around in alarm. This was the same house, the stairs were even still ruined, but the ice was gone, and the temperature had to be well near tropical.

Neo appeared from the kitchen, limping over quietly and plopping down back to back with Ruby wearing a pair of jeans that looked recently cut into short shorts and a pink t-shirt. Ruby could feel her companion sweating through both their clothes. She didn't know how long she'd been out, but things had changed drastically, and if it was going to reach anywhere near the same level of extreme... Ruby was not looking forward to deadly heat so soon.

She leaned back, resting her head on Neo's shoulder. "Hey... we should get out of the house."


	5. The Abominable Grotto

**I will be posting this story on ao3, with added bits that are too cool for posting here.**

* * *

Now that the temperature was above freezing, well above it in fact, Ruby had switched back to her combat skirt. She found a nice t-shirt to go with it, but beyond that everything else was excessive and stuffy. Neo was pretty content with shorts, but other than that they were outfitted much the same as each other. Ruby hoped she didn't have to talk to Neo about the importance of underwear, as she considered it a given. The last thing was footwear, and as much as Ruby loved her boots, they were not suited for these temperatures. Fortunately, but also unfortunately, they had to bring a lot of clothes with them in case the temperature dropped suddenly, and there was no guarantee it wouldn't. While that did mean she would be able to keep her own clothes with her, it also meant she would have to carry it all in the steadily increasing heat. That was the part she wasn't looking forward to.

It felt like she had been cooped up inside for forever. Opening the front door and stepping outside felt like being released from prison, or being born all over again. The sun was beating down on the city, bathing everything in light and warmth. A little too much light and warmth, but it was actually pleasant. Neo stepped out behind Ruby and immediately slumped over, looking totally wasted. It seemed the weather didn't exactly agree with her. Ruby hoisted the bag with her clothes and some supplies over her shoulder, looking out over the still-empty city before them as it baked in the sun. Where to go?

"We should try to look for others. If we can find a shelter, or a ship that we can take to Atlas... what do you think?"

Neo was doubled over, her hands on her knees, panting heavily. She barely raised her head, wheezing as she waved Ruby off. Ruby got the sense she was playing it up a little, but wasn't so cynical that she would tell that to Neo's face. If she was playing it up, it was most likely to make more obvious something that was actually true. So the heat or the light was hurting Neo... what did that mean for Ruby?

"Do you need me to carry you?" Still with her head down, her hair hanging almost to the ground, Neo shook her head. A few seconds later, she nodded. Ruby sighed. "Alright, let's not make a bigger deal out of this than it needs to be." Putting down her bag, she crouched down for Neo to climb up onto her back. It took a moment before Neo got on, wrapping her arms around Ruby's neck and her legs around Ruby's waist, resting her head on the back of Ruby's neck. Ruby picked up both of their bags, struggling to stand up straight again, but once she was up it was a lot easier to move. She had to lean forward to keep from losing her balance and falling over backwards on top of Neo, but she could manage. "Okay, you ready? I'm gonna start walking."

After a moment of no response, Ruby felt Neo nod her head, which was pressed up against the back of her neck. She could already feel Neo's hair getting soggy from both of their sweat and sticking to Ruby's skin. It was uncomfortable, but little had been since she woke up in the street, so she put it out of her mind and took her first step carrying Neo on her back. Immediately, Neo slid down her back, her arms tightening around Ruby's neck. In her panic from falling, Neo tried to pull herself back up, which had two effects; first, she started strangling Ruby, who doubled over to try and pull Neo back up, which almost sent Neo flying over her head, and second, when Neo did move back into position as a result of both their efforts, Ruby felt the pressure on her back from a pair of peculiarly soft parts on the front of Neo's body. She knew, of course, what it was she felt starting to poke at her back, but that didn't make it easier to put it out of her mind. She would just have to not mention it... and move on, and put up with it. For her part, Neo had also noticed, but was loath to admit it by adjusting her position. If she didn't do anything about it, she could pass it off like Ruby was imagining things, but if she made a big deal about fixing her position Ruby would know that she wasn't wearing a bra. An oversight that, after this, Neo wouldn't be making again.

"Alright... now that we've got that out of our system, let's go for real." Ruby took another step forward, this time more carefully. Neo was clinging onto her like her life depended on it, so this time she didn't slip nearly as much. Another step, and Ruby noticed something. The faster she moved, the more Neo moved up and down with each step. On the one hand, it was all sorts of distracting and disorienting, but on the other hand it almost felt like she was getting a back massage. She opened her mouth to say as much, but decided better. The last thing she wanted was to antagonize the only other person in sight, especially someone who had their arms already around her neck, not to mention someone who didn't like Ruby very much to begin with.

It became a slog, a long step-by-step journey down empty streets. It didn't take long for Ruby to really start feeling the effects of having someone on top of her. The space between them became like an oven, filling with sweat. Ruby noticed very quickly that Neo being on top of her did not make for any sort of shade at all, and she could see the result in the form of long lines of sweat running down her face, arms, and front. Her hair felt just like if she had just dunked her head in a bucket of warm water, and Neo's hair wasn't any better. In fact, being longer, it was starting to get on her nerves how much it was sticking to her own back, neck, and arm. One lone adventurous strand was even making its way over Ruby's shoulder and down the front of her shirt. A part of her wanted to yank that strand of hair off of Neo's head in frustration, but she'd spent her entire life avoiding messing with others' hair and she wasn't about to start now.

There came a point, well into their long trudge, that Ruby began to wonder what had actually happened. She stopped next to a pair of houses and set Neo down in the shade between them. Jogging away, she went about trying to open the front doors of every house, three in each direction, on both sides of the street. None of them were open. They were all shut, and all but one were locked. The door hadn't been broken in, which was a good sign, and it looked to be a good place to take a break. She left the door open and ran back to where she'd left Neo, only to find the small woman, and both their things, missing. Thinking she'd mixed up where she had left Neo, she checked every alleyway up and down the street over the entire area she'd just covered, then expanded her search several houses further. She checked every alleyway on the other side of the street, and was about to start kicking down doors when, while running, she had to pivot to one side to avoid falling down a manhole. She landed hard on her rear, and sat there staring at the open manhole. She was certain that hadn't been there, and once she took a moment to think about it she realized it was right in front of the alley where she had first thought she'd left Neo.

Slowly, Ruby approached the manhole, and peered down into the darkness. It wasn't completely darkness, since the sun was still straight overhead. Down at the bottom, she could see their bags, open, the contents scattered about haphazardly. So that was it then. Neo had gone down into the sewers. Ruby could understand if she just wanted to escape the heat, but to leave their clothes and weapons and food all over the dirty sewer floors like that was, Ruby decided, probably unlike her. Ruby thought about it for a moment before deciding on the answer. Since Neo hadn't been handling the heat and the sun very well, she might have been delirious and suffering from heatstroke. In her daze, she might have been seeking out anyplace to escape the heat and fallen down the manhole. If that was so, she could be down there right now, badly hurt. There was no other choice. Ruby had to follow.

Without her aura, Ruby had to climb down the ladder into the sewers, which was not a descent she appreciated. The ladder was rusty, to start, and also sticky and damp, and worst of all very dirty. Everything below her smelled horrible, and the heat was definitely making it all worse. Then things got even more problematic, when the ladder suddenly stopped still several feet from the floor. It was hard for Ruby to see exactly why, but it looked like the rest of the ladder was resting on the floor in a twisted heap. That was discouraging, but even worse she could see that the contents of their bags were strewn out on the ground in a trail leading off to one side. She dropped the last few feet, though she felt the impact in her legs without her aura to support her. She quickly gathered their clothes and shoved them into one of the bags and threw it up and out of the manhole, then grabbed both weapons, fastening Hush to her belt and Crescent Rose held firmly in her hands.

The bags had been dropped first. Neo had grabbed onto as much as she could and taken it with her, dropping things every so often. She wasn't delirious. She was taken. Taking one last breath in the sunlight, Ruby stepped into the darkness to follow what had quickly turned into a trail of sandwiches. Something was alive down here, surviving the deep freeze in this damp environment, and it had come up for a moment to grab Neo and drag her down to the depths. She chased the trail as far as she could before it went cold, the breadcrumb trail ending in a plastic bag floating in a stream of standing water running down the middle of the tunnel. There was only one direction it could go for a while, but when it branched again Ruby would lose the chase. Neo would be gone. Sure enough, Ruby reached the end of the tunnel, where it split off in two different directions. She didn't know where to go. She had lost Neo, the closest thing she had left to a friend.

_Drip... drip... drip..._

Ruby looked up. That sound... it was coming from the left hand path. Something was there, moving in the dark, coiling around itself. Something enormous, wrapped in a giant bind of long tendrils. The mass began to writhe, separating and revealing its captive, held in the grasp of countless tiny tentacles. Neo was being dangled above a giant mouth of what looked to Ruby almost like a carnivorous plant. The tentacles... The vines, began to wind their way towards Ruby. Before she could back away from them, she felt one grab her ankle from behind and pull her leg out from under her, knocking her down and lifting her up into the air. Other vines reached out to her and wrapped around her arms, snaking their way up her limbs. But all Ruby could see was Neo as the monster plunged her into its mouth.


	6. The Wicked Vine

**The version of this chapter on ao3 will have some extra material.**

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Neo felt strange. It felt like she was being smothered in blankets, but if those blankets were gooey, oozing, and pulsating. At least it was a bit cooler, though, otherwise she would be seriously protesting right now. A big sign and everything. She tried to remember how she ended up in this situation, but the pulsation was getting on her nerves. She remembered that she was with Ruby, so Ruby must have found them some blankets. Wet blankets, from what it felt like. To be fair, in the sweltering heat, wet blankets were probably a blessing. She had to assume that their sticky sweat was what made them turn into slimy blankets, so that couldn't be avoided really. That pulsating sensation must have been Ruby moving around. Neo wanted her to stop, so she kicked out with her foot.

Instead of a yelp or just ceasing to move, the last thing Neo had expected came as a response to her kick. She started to sink deeper into the blankets, and they started to press against her, threatening to force the air out of her lungs. She had had enough, and started struggling back against the blanket mass, flailing her arms only to find they had no room to move. She opened her eyes to find everything black, and the cool slime washed over her eyes. She became aware of a strange tingling sensation. She'd only felt that once before, from a very strong gel with acidic properties which ate away at bacteria, dirt, and dead skin. She remembered giving that spa a very low rating. She also remembered that you were only supposed to apply that gel for so long because it eventually started to eat away at your skin. It was some plant-base substance from a carnivorous plant, diluted to be safe for humans.

Now she had an idea of what had happened. Somehow, she thought she may have ended up inside a carnivorous plant. She didn't remember getting eaten, but it made some sort of sense. If she were being digested, it would certainly explain why she was pretty sure her clothes were starting to melt. However, now that she knew what was going on, the next course of action became a lot more clear. She started to panic.

* * *

Ruby was slammed into the floor, tendril vines constricting around her body as they slowly dragged her along the ground. She was barely keeping consciousness with how tightly they had started to squeeze her. While they held her body in their vice grip, they had loosened their hold on her arms for a moment, but not enough for her to start tearing at the captive vines. It was enough, however, for her to snag Hush as she was dragged past it. She pressed the button on the handle, and the blade slipped free of the parasol, leaving her with only the deadly weapon part. She didn't fight back, though. She didn't antagonize the beast. She waited until it lifted her up over its giant maw, gaping open beneath her. Then it dropped her into the gelatinous prison and snapped shut.

She quickly found herself pressed on from both sides by the mucus-ridden walls of the creature's gullet, slowly slipping further down as its juices started to engulf her. It was revolting, and she wanted it to end, but she couldn't risk the chance of it spitting her back up before she found Neo. Turning head first into the slow descent, she pushed downwards, clutching the blade of Hush to her chest. It didn't take long, though it really felt like an hour, before she found her companion with her free hand. She reached out and grabbed Neo's kicking leg, taking a hold of her above the ankle and pulling the two of them together. She reached out again, grabbing the next part of Neo and pulling herself even closer, then wrapping her arm around Neo's back and tightening her grip until they were practically hugging.

Neo didn't know how to respond. Ruby had joined her in what was sure to be a slow and ultimately agonizingly painful death, and now that their bodies were pressed together Neo could confirm that her clothes had indeed started to melt at an alarming rate. If this was some sort of rescue attempt on Ruby's part, it was woefully inadequate. Whatever Ruby was poking her with was also starting to become an extra annoyance she didn't need. Then Ruby grabbed her hand and placed the offending object in her palm. Neo recognized that hilt. It was time to cut herself free.

Lifting her hand up, Neo plunged the blade of her weapon into the side of whatever creature had the gall to try and eat her. She drew her hand back when it started convulsing, sure that she had dealt a painful blow, and stabbed upward into it. She pulled down with all her strength, cutting a long gash through the monster's side through which she immediately thrush her hand. Feeling the cooler and fresher air outside, she pushed her other hand out and spread her arms apart, like she was swimming through the beast's stomach lining. She slipped out to freedom, tumbling out onto the stone floor of the sewers below Mantle. Ruby fell out after her, her hand around Neo's ankle. They staggered to their feet, blinking the smelly goop from their vision so they could see their escape.

Finally freeing her eyes from the blinding slime, the first thing Neo saw in the low light was a tendril snaking its way through the air towards her. She quickly lashed out with her blade, slashing the tip off of the tentacle and letting about three inches of it drop to the ground. Her head was on a swivel, watching for the next attempt, and it certainly was coming. In response to her attack, it seemed like hundreds of the things were approaching from every direction to put down the offending food. She wouldn't be able to take them all on her own, so she needed Ruby's help. There was no one else, after all, so Neo had to prioritize keeping Ruby safe long enough for her to get her weapon, which Neo could see laying on the ground not far away.

Ruby wiped slime from her eyes and blinked her way back into being able to see. The instant she opened her eyes, she was greeted by the sight of Neo's blade flashing past her face and cleaving several vines in half. She jumped back in surprise, bumping into the huge body of the creature they had just escaped from. Looking up, Ruby saw three large vines creeping over the edge of the beast's maw. It was definitely time to go. Looking forward, she spotted Crescent Rose straight ahead of her, but countless tendrils were blocking her way.

"Neo, I need you to clear a path!"

Neo nodded, quickly thrusting herself into the mass of plant matter and hacking away at everything that moved. The plant monster's attention was on her for the moment, and Ruby used that to duck around the side, running over to her weapon and scooping it up. She wouldn't be caught off guard again. As Crescent Rose unfolded, Ruby watched calmly and patiently as Neo was overwhelmed by the constant assault. Though her acrobatic prowess was probably the best Ruby had ever seen, even better than Blake, the sheer number of directions she was being attacked from soon became too much to handle and she was lifted into the air by one foot and one hand, still slashing away at anything she could reach. Her face was the picture of righteous anger as she made every part of the monster that had abducted her regret ever making the decision to accost the woman.

A pair of vines wrapped around Neo's weapon arm, holding it still while the monster decided what to do with her, and another vine coiled around her throat to choke her back into unconsciousness. Crescent Rose's end extended outward for maximum strike range. Now it was Ruby's turn to repay the monster a hundred fold. With the sound of a sniper shot splitting the sewer air, Ruby launched into the air and spun as fast as she could without passing out, flying over Neo's entangled body and cutting nearly every vine that held her. Ruby landed hard on the ground, barely keeping herself from planting her face into the stone floor by balancing her weapon out behind her. What had to be a hundred angry sheered vines writhed in agony and recoiled from their prey. The three larger vines, which Ruby now saw were sprouting out of the monster's mouth, moved to the front and began moving to surround Ruby. The one on her right ventured too close and she punished it by spinning quickly and slicing it down the middle, splitting its end about a meter along its length.

The one on her left took the opportunity to strike at Ruby's back, but found itself impaled by Hush, which Neo had returned to its sheath. As the two vines backed off, Neo took her place back to back with Ruby. She opened Hush up, pointing at the monster threateningly. She looked over her shoulder to see Ruby looking back at her. A quick smile and nod, and they both knew what to do. This would be their first fight together, working as partners on equal ground, armed and ready, against a strong enemy, in the depths of Mantle's sewers, sticky and wet with stomach juices from their foe, their tattered and melting clothes barely hanging onto them.

Ruby waited until the split head started winding up to swipe at them, throwing caution to the wind and sacrificing a damaged tendril to batter its foes into submission, and just before it struck she made the call. "Go!" Shooting forward, they charged the monster's body together. Ruby swung her scythe over her head, left to right, cutting a long gash into the body, and at the same time Neo slashed upwards with Hush, dragging the new wound up to meet the beginning of Ruby's in a corner. The center vine, which was over their heads, dropped onto them to crush them both, but was blocked by Hush as Neo rolled over Ruby's back to reach her other side. Ruby slashed back to the left closer to the ground as Neo landed and cut downwards, finishing a neatly made square in the side of the beast's belly. The split vine slammed into the spot where they were standing, only to miss as Ruby back-flipped over it and Neo's now false image simply shattered, letting the large vine smash into the cutout they had created, which collapsed into the monster's body.

Rushing over to the side of the body, where Ruby could see the split vine sticking out of the mouth over her head, she cut it off with one swift overhead arc of her blade, simply sidestepping the huge bulk as it dropped to the ground lifelessly. The screeching sound that came from their foe gave them both a good amount of satisfaction and a boost of morale. More than that, as they retreated and regrouped, they could see countless gallons of its stomach fluids draining fast from its body through the collapsed wall. The smaller vines, which they could still see hiding behind the hulking body, began to droop as the creature's lifeblood poured onto the stones. This also served to anger the two remaining large vines, which started thrashing about and crashing into the floor, the walls, and the ceiling. A deep gurgling whine rose from its belly, and the body began to slowly move back away from them.

"It's retreating! Stop it!"

They both charged again, and the two large vines moved to meet them. Neo met hers first, opening Hush and stopping it cold. The stones under her feet cracked from the impact, but she didn't budge. Holding her seemingly frail shield in place, she drew the blade out and slashed around the front of her defense, cutting deep into the vine's head. As it recoiled, she stepped back and held the two parts of her weapon up as a sword and shield. It shot forward again, but she blocked it with her shield and vaulted over it, landing on her feet on top of it. She lifted her blade and plunged it into the vine, and then ran along it, dragging her blade all the way along it, cutting the entire vine open. She only stopped once she reached the monster's very mouth, just as Ruby cleaved the other one free of its body, letting it drop next to the first. Neo was about to cut the final of the large vines, when she spotted something from her new vantage point. Hidden behind the giant grotesque plant's body was what looked to be a human head.

It very clearly wasn't another person, as it was attached to the body, and all of the smaller vines were sprouting from the stock that connected the two. That made it a target, and Neo quickly hopped down behind the beast, her blade aimed for the head. Even though the smaller vines, obviously in a panic, wrapped around her in a giant mass, by warding enough of them off with her shield she managed to reach out and spear right through its gross green eye. In an instant, the monster went completely limp and silent. It dropped her onto the ground, and all the vines fell on their own, nothing more than dead weight.

Ruby had seen Neo disappear behind the monster's massive body, and a moment later the whole thing had died, but she still couldn't see Neo. Now that everything was quiet, and it really was silent, she called out. "Are you alright?" Neo stepped around the dead body, holding Hush open in front of her with one hand. With her other hand, she signed four letters. Ruby nodded in agreement. "A bath sounds good right about now."


	7. The Needed Bath

The rush of the fight for survival had worn off.

The trek back to the ladder, their only sure way out and the location of all the things they still had intact, was long and painful. More than once, Ruby found herself turning around to throw up in some dark corner just because of the smell of the plant monster's stomach juices. She attested another two times at least to the thought of what they'd just been through. She would have to purge the revolting monster's image from her memory if she ever wanted to sleep soundly again. To make matters worse, whether it was psychosomatic or and actual effect of the slime covering her, she was starting to itch horribly all over. One look over to Neo told her that it was probably the acidic substance starting to eat its way through their skin, which was a severe concern they would have to address within a few minutes.

Every time Neo scratched her neck, she just felt her fingers sinking into slime, and she was starting to come away with an increasingly alarming amount of liquefied dead skin under her fingernails. Every time she did it she exposed more new tender skin to the corrosive ooze. Worse, she had no idea what to do to neutralize the acid. Meanwhile, her own stomach had been having problems as well, emptying every few seconds like it was its job to make the sewers dirtier. She wanted out of here as soon as possible, but she didn't remember getting dragged through sewers by her abductor, let alone managing to leave a trail of sandwiches for Ruby to follow, so she had to let Ruby lead the way for now. This took twice as long, since most of the time Neo wasn't throwing up, Ruby was.

It felt like a forever of agony before they reached the ladder, which hung a couple meters over Neo's head. She grimaced at the thought of trying to climb that after someone who kept throwing up, but it was hard to think of a better option. They both desperately needed a long bath anyway, so it wasn't like a little extra would hurt any _more_. She didn't have to like it, she just needed to get through it. Ruby crouched down under the ladder, motioning for Neo to climb on her shoulders. That was something Neo wasn't about to argue with, so she got on and Ruby stood up. It was a little difficult to stay on, what with the slime they were both covered in, but Neo was rather good at holding on to things when she wasn't borderline dying. From there, it took a bit longer to stand up on Ruby's shoulders, but the ladder became easy access once she was up. Ruby could help herself, so Neo started climbing.

Breaking out into the much cleaner, fresher air of the sunny midday, Neo crawled away from the manhole and rolled onto her back. A few moments later, Ruby joined her and they lay in silence for over a minute. Then, once again, it was time to move. Neo was glad for one thing, at least. Since the slime covered her almost completely, it blocked a lot of the heat from the sun. She watched idly, scratching the peeling skin on her belly, as Ruby got up and picked up the bag they had been keeping their things in. There wasn't much left besides their regular clothes, but Neo was grateful that those were a clear promise for the future. They were reduced to their clothes and weapons now, but Neo wasn't about to complain so long as they got all of this muck off of themselves before it started eating into their flesh.

Ruby pointed towards a nearby building. "In there. I think it was a dust shop. There's a living space on the upper floor, and a bunch of water jugs."

Neo got up. If a bath was waiting that close by, she wouldn't waste time lazing about. Not wanting to be reduced to a pile of pink gelatin, Neo followed Ruby into the building she had indicated and up to the living space on the second floor. Inside, they found several water jugs just as Ruby had said, though more than half of them had clearly burst from being frozen. It wasn't perfect, but it looked like it should be enough to clean the slime off of both of them, if they used it carefully. Ruby opened up one of the jugs which had split, as there was still water in the bottom, and poured it over her head. The water, warm from sitting out in the growing heat, washed the gunk away with surprising ease. Seeing this, Neo wasted no time grabbing one of the full jugs and opening it over her head, letting it go until she was sure her entire body was soaked and the jug was empty.

Ruby emptied another split jug over herself to stave off the itching slime before she went about pouring the full jugs into a small bathtub in the washroom. "We need to do something a little more thorough. Here, get in."

Within a minute or two, Ruby had emptied all of the remaining water into the tub and the two of them were sitting together in a half-filled tub. Ruby was diligently splashing the water on herself and rubbing down her arms and legs to get as much of the remnants of the slime off of her as possible. Neo just sat there, soaking in the water, content to be enveloped by something that wasn't inherently intended to kill her. She sunk down into the water, letting the warmth wash over her, staying put until she noticed Ruby eyeing her. Neo gave her a glare telling her to stop thinking whatever she was thinking.

Looking away, almost like she was embarrassed to say anything, Ruby finally spoke again. "You uh... you should let me wipe you down. We need to make sure there isn't any left, right?"

Neo rolled her eyes, but relented. Ruby smiled, glad that Neo was opening up enough to trust her with washing her. When Neo turned her back to Ruby, pulling her hair over her shoulder so Ruby could clean her back, it reminded Ruby of when she was little and would be washed by her mother, and then for a time, by Yang. She splashed water onto Neo's back and wiped it down with her hands. When she ran her hands around Neo's sides and down along her legs, she noticed the smaller woman arched her back a little with an audible gasp. Ruby could feel her face starting to heat up when that was the reaction she got. It hadn't been her intention, but it looked like Neo was having a hard time controlling her reactions to the physical contact. She suddenly ducked down, dunking her head under the water before coming back up and shaking her head furiously.

Holding her hands up to shield her face from Neo's long hair whipping around, Ruby let out a laugh. She had no illusions that anything besides her laughter was the cause of the death glare Neo shot over her shoulder a moment later, but Ruby accepted that it was a fair response, since her own wandering hands had been the instigator. Once Neo had calmed down, Ruby went back to washing her, starting from her neck and shoulders, then running her hands down along Neo's arms. It was when she started trying to wash Neo's front that the small woman suddenly covered her breasts with her hands.

Ruby pulled back, holding her hands up. "You know, you really should be doing this yourself." All she got in response was a pout face. "Alright, well, I can't wash your front if you cover it up." Neo sulked a bit, but lowered her hands. Ruby wasted no time getting back to work. Moving her arms around Neo's body, Ruby splashed some water up onto her chest. She cupped Neo's breasts in her hands, only doing what she was pretty sure was necessary for a proper cleaning, but acutely aware of when Neo inhaled sharply as she ran her hands over the woman's breasts. She was starting to feel like it was time to move on. "Okay, I think we should take this opportunity to wash our hair, don't you?"

Neo gave a very small nod, trying to hide her reddened face. Ruby quickly hopped out of the tub and grabbed a towel, wrapping it around herself and holding another one out to Neo, who stood up and took it without question. Neo looked back at the tub questioningly. If that was all they were going to do with the water in the tub, how were they supposed to wash their hair? She looked back to Ruby, who smiled knowingly. That didn't inspire much confidence in Neo, but she decided to watch and see what Ruby had planned.

It turned out not to be nearly as bad as she'd expected. Ruby found a small vial of dust, and a somewhat larger vial of a different kind of dust. Ruby explained. "Ice dust, which we make ice with, and then melt it into water. And this," She held up the smaller of the two vials. "This is soap dust. It's not very common, but the Schnee Dust Corporation does use it in some of their products. Now we get a bucket."

A bucket found, Ruby used a created a chunk of ice and melted it with some fire dust, letting it fill up the bucket. She had Neo lie down on her back, dipping the back of her head into the bucket, and added some of the soap dust into the mix. All Neo had to do was close her eyes and wait for Ruby to finish. The sensation of Ruby's fingers on her head was half uncomfortable and half relaxing, and she could feel the suds growing and up around her head. When Ruby had finished, she poured another smaller bucket of dust-heated water over Neo's head to wash out the soap, then unceremoniously hoisted Neo out of the way and lay down herself.

"Okay, now it's my turn." Ruby looked over to see Neo drying her hair with a towel, and absolutely not intending to wash Ruby's hair at all. "Aw, come on, really?" Neo continued not to move to help, so Ruby sprinkled a little more of the soap dust in and started washing her hair on her own. She didn't expect it to come out nearly as well, simply because her eyes were closed for most of the time. When she'd reached the point where she needed the second bucket, she called out to Neo for help again. "Can you get the rinse water? Please? I can't see right now. ...Neo?" The entire bucket's worth of water hit her in the face all at once.

Ruby shot up, coughing and sputtering, trying to get the water out of her nose as Neo backed away quietly. When it looked like Ruby was about to be able to get up, Neo threw a towel at her face. The soft cloth stopped her from getting up to punish her attacker, and she stayed down. Draping the towel over her head, Ruby took a moment to breathe and looked up at Neo, who was still drying her own hair. It was a harmless prank, really, so Ruby let it go.

"Hey... are you gonna be alright?" Neo stopped and turned to look back at Ruby. After a moment of just staring, she just shrugged noncommittally. Ruby sighed, shifting her focus to her feet. She shook her head. "Well... yeah, me too... but... you know, for a while there, I thought I was going to lose you. I know it's not really... we're not friends, I get it, but... I guess what I'm trying to say is... I'm really glad I'm not alone. I'm glad you're safe." Ruby looked up just in time to see Neo throw a shirt at her. She pulled the piece of clothing off her face and let herself laugh. "Yeah. You're right. Time to get dressed."


	8. The Spring Shower

Ruby sat on her back, her legs pointing straight up the side of the wall, staring at the ceiling as she waited for night to come. The heat outside the dust shop was sweltering, and she feared Neo would collapse if they tried to go anywhere in it. So they were staying indoors until night. She looked over to see where Neo was sprawled out on the floor, trying to cool off with very little success. The whole room was filled with a glow from the window where the sunlight was coming in. Neither of them wanted to be anywhere near the window, and all closing the curtain would really accomplish was trapping them in a hot _and_ dark room, which was at this point the only thing worse than their current situation.

It wasn't until she got a sensation in her face like her head was filling up with blood that Ruby decided to roll over onto her side. Neo looked up to see what had happened, but when she saw it was just Ruby adjusting her position she went back to sprawling. It probably wasn't that long after, but Ruby wasn't sure since it felt like hours, when she heard a small tap on the window. She looked over at the window to see what had happened, but there was no sign of anything she could see. Then, just as she looked away, she heard it again. If this were to continue, Ruby was ready to assume she was just hearing things and losing her mind. It was when she was about to write herself off as a basket case that the sound started repeating a lot faster, turning from a slow tapping to a constant drumming, and the light pouring in through the window went dark. Ruby sat up, realizing that it was rain.

Approaching the window on her hands and knees, Ruby looked up at the sky to see it had become overcast with dark clouds. The window was very quickly becoming all blurry with raindrops, and every once in a while it would start shuddering from a blast of wind. A storm had brewed up without warning, and now they were stuck inside for a totally different reason. She looked back at Neo to see her companion also sitting up and staring in disbelief at the window. Ruby shook her head apologetically, then pushed herself up to her feet. She straightened out her clothes and headed for the stairs that would take them down to the ground floor, waving Neo over to follow her.

"Come on. We might not be able to get very far in this weather, but we can try and collect some water for ourselves."

Neo looked far more optimistic with that idea and scrambled to join Ruby. They grabbed two of the water jugs they had just emptied each and made their way down to the front door of the shop. The door, as well as the entire storefront window, rattled as they approached, the wind doing its best to dislodge them and break into the building. For now, though, they held firm, but Ruby couldn't help trying to figure out where in the building she might remember seeing a room with no windows. Regardless, she set her water jugs down on the floor and reached out to open the door. The moment she turned the handle, the door swung open and Ruby was knocked back by a ferocious gust of wind. The only thing that kept her from being sent head over heels was Neo standing right behind her, and between the two of them they managed to stay put.

Once the air pressure equalized inside the building and out, the wind died down somewhat, enough that they were able to stand alone. Neo nodded to Ruby and handed over one of the water jugs. Taking it, Ruby stepped forward, placing one foot out the door and holding the water jug out. She was sure this would take quite some time, but sure enough the rain started filling the jug. Her hair was soaked in an instant, whipping around her face mercilessly as the wind gave everything it had to move any and every thing in its way. Ruby stood firm. It wasn't that it was really a life or death situation, it was just that she didn't want to be out of water next time they needed a bath so badly. Having something to drink also had its appeal, so there was that.

It took a good while, but thankfully the rain didn't show any sign of letting up. By the time the jug was filled enough that Ruby's arms were getting tired from just holding it up, she considered herself as having showered enough for the next month. She knew her hands would have felt like ice and barely been able to grasp anything if it wasn't for the rain being quite warm. She ducked back into the house and collapsed to her knees, pushing the water jug off to the side where it was safe from being blown over. Neo held out another jug for her to fill, but Ruby just shook her head. Her arms were sore from holding an increasingly heavy load out in front of her for so long. She would need to rest, but she knew they couldn't rely on the rain to keep going forever. It would disappear just like the frost and the sunlight, it was only a matter of time.

"I'll hold onto your leg or something, but I can't do that again right now."

Neo shrugged. She stuck her foot in between Ruby's legs and leaned out the door, holding the jug up to collect rain. By the time she had filled it, Ruby was about ready to go again, so they swapped places after collecting the jugs Ruby had brought down, which had scattered to the back of the shop the moment they'd opened the door. Swapping back again for the final jug, Ruby began to wonder if it was reasonable to go and retrieve some more jugs and try to stock up, but she realized that there was a point where they were just hoarding water they wouldn't be able to carry with them, as if they intended to stay in this building for a long period of time. She shook that idea off. She knew they still had to find out what had happened, where everyone else had gone, and why. They had to get to Atlas.

Carrying the jugs back upstairs turned out to take two trips, as they were much heavier when full, but once they were settled in up in the dust shop's upstairs bedroom, Ruby's attention turned to how soaked through she was. Neo expressed Ruby's own thoughts with action, pulling her shirt up over her head and throwing it onto the bedside table. Ruby followed suit, and they both stripped down so as to avoid hypothermia. There weren't very many dry towels left after their long bathing process, but they definitely needed to use them right now. After toweling themselves down and leaving their clothes to dry, the two of them climbed into the bed.

It felt like the temperature was finally starting to drop again. Ruby hoped it wouldn't fall as far as it had last time, but to protect them from the damp and increasingly cool atmosphere they had to pull the blanket up around them. With nothing between them this time, it felt a lot different from the first night trying to survive in this hectic version of the world they knew. Instead of being wrapped by soft cloth all around them, Ruby had one blanket keeping her safe and Neo's soft little body nestled closely to her own. She reminded herself that this was for warmth while they slept, and it helped a little, but it was certainly distracting to be on the receiving end of someone snuggling their face into her chest. She remembered doing that with her sister a long time ago, and her mother even longer ago, but this was the other side of the equation and she wasn't quite sure how to react, especially since she was pretty sure Neo was older than her.

Neo let out a contented sigh, and her body relaxed in Ruby's arms. Ruby didn't know what to do about it, but it looked like Neo had fallen asleep pretty quickly. Trying her best to tiptoe the line between being comforting and being inappropriate, she pulled Neo into just a little bit tighter of a hug. Her face heated up as Neo, either intentionally or unconsciously, moved her hands around the small of Ruby's back. She knew she had to be blushing heavily, and Neo wasn't helping at all, pushing one of her legs in between Ruby's, sending a tingle up along Ruby's body.

She wasn't exactly sure when she fell asleep, but she woke up in pretty much the same position she'd fallen asleep. The difference, and probably what had pulled her out of her sleep, was the howling of the wind, blowing around the room like an angry animal let loose. Ruby pulled the blanket tighter around her and Neo, but looked up at the window. Sometime during the night, most likely just before she woke up, the glass had shattered into the room. Luckily, since the bed was in the corner of the room, it wasn't near enough to them that any glass shards had landed on the bed, but the wind itself was enough of a problem. She prodded Neo gently to wake her up. Upon waking, Neo took her own sweet time extricating herself from the tangled mess the two of them had become in bed. Once she was finished resisting Ruby's urging to get up, the two of them sat up in bed and looked out over the room. The glass had been cast across the floor everywhere, and the door had been busted open by the wind.

Neo grumbled silently as her hair began to whip around her face in a flurry. She climbed out from under the blanket and crawled to the dresser that was set at the foot of the bed, pulling out the drawers in search of any spare clothing, and when she found something sufficient she used it to tie back her hair. She grabbed a pair of pants that was altogether too large for her, but instead of trying to wear it she went about hitting the floor with it, sending the shattered pieces of glass into the corner of the room. Once she had cleared a path for them to get to the door, she threw the pants on the floor and crawled back across the bed and over Ruby to reach the bedside table where their clothes had been left to dry. Unfortunately, they were still quite wet, only colder now due to the wind blowing across them. After she discovered that, it almost looked to Ruby like she was ready to climb right back under the blanket and fall asleep again.

Ruby didn't want to be too forceful, but at this point they needed to get out of this room. She stepped out onto the floor, being careful to only step where Neo had cleared, and leaned over the bed, scooping Neo up in her arms. "Come on, we need to get out of here. It's not safe anymore." Neo didn't protest, so Ruby simply carried her out of the room, setting her down to the side in the hallway. Ruby ran back into the room and grabbed a pair of large shirts from the dresser. Whoever had lived here before them was a much larger person, but it would benefit them to borrow the unused clothing. She dropped a big white shirt on Neo's lap. "Here, it'll keep you covered at least." She put a grey shirt on herself, the bottom of the shirt hanging around just above her knees and the wide neck slipping down around her shoulder. It wasn't perfect, but it stayed on and it was dry, so it was enough for now.

There was a fairly sizable closet on the ground floor, so Ruby started moving the water jugs downstairs and into the closet one by one, then gathered up their weapons as well as the soaked clothes and moved them in too, hanging the wet clothing from a rack that was probably for magazines or something similar. She returned to the upstairs hall to find Neo, only to have to suppress a laugh when she saw how Neo wore the shirt. The neck slipped down around her shoulders, only her breasts preventing it from falling all the way down. Neo didn't look entirely impressed, but she didn't even resist when Ruby picked her up and carried her downstairs and into the closet. Ruby set Neo down, closed the door, and sat down beside her companion.

The closet was dark, but it had something they just hadn't had before now. An old oil lamp. Ruby lit it, and basked in the soft glow. She hung the lamp from a hook on the wall and sat back down. She saw that Neo had wasted no time in finding a mostly empty book to write in and was wasting no time in jotting down something to tell Ruby. Once she was done, she handed it over, and Ruby read the comment out loud.

"You're warm. You make a great pillow." She looked over to Neo, somewhat amused by this confession. "Uh... thank you, I guess. I do drink milk." Neo drew her finger across her throat and shook her head. Ruby frowned. "Well, then what do you mean?" Neo rolled her eyes and just lay down, resting her head on Ruby's lap. Ruby didn't know what to do, but if closeness was a good metric for how much someone minded you, then this probably meant Neo was warming up to her. "Okay, I guess that's fine." She patted the top of Neo's head cautiously, relieved to see a small smile forming on the woman's lips in response.


	9. The Noose Tied

Hiding from the cold. Hiding from the heat. Hiding from the rain and wind. Ruby was tired of hiding out from the belligerent and uncooperative weather. The last thing she wanted was to allow herself to be overcome by nature's forces of destruction, but they were making no progress this way. Nothing they did was of any consequence. They weren't any closer to finding out what had happened, where everyone had gone, and why they were the only two remaining. It was aggravating, borderline maddening, and it didn't help that fate had decided to leave her with only one companion who couldn't even so much as offer a 'hmm' in response to anything Ruby said.

The closet was a blessing, in its own way, as it turned out to be filled with dried foods that had for the most part taken both the extreme cold and the heat in stride, among many other goods that made their lives more plausible. It really was just a storage closet for someone who needed a place to keep all their things, like a big junk drawer filled with actually useful items instead of souvenirs from Vacuo. There was spare cloth, folded neatly in a box, just a bunch of large squares of various patterned cloth that wasn't too heavy or too light. With some scissors, a needle, and a lot of string, Ruby felt confident she could make spare clothes for them. All those materials, as it turned out, were in the smaller box right next to the cloth. A box filled with big tufts of cotton offered itself up as well, giving her all the ingredients for pillows.

After all that, coupled with the jugs of water she and Neo had collected, there was plenty of supplies to sustain them in the closet for a few days. Stepping outside to collect more rainwater every now and then was all they needed to stay put for weeks. A couple of battery lamps had revealed themselves, making their oil lamp obsolete, but she kept the oil lamp as their main source of light for as long as the supply of oil held out. She wanted to take the battery lamps with them when they left, as batteries were far easier to transport than spare oil. To top it all off, there was even a small shelf of bottles, mostly wine, and some of them were still intact.

Unfortunately, and much to Ruby's great chagrin, this had led to them getting comfortable and trying to wait out the storm. Unlike the deep freeze or the sweltering heat, the storm stayed right where it was. At first it had lasted through the night, and then all through the next day. Then the second day, once they were in the closet, passed without any change. Ruby was beginning to worry when she woke up on the third morning to the now familiar sounds of rain and wind beating against the walls of the dust shop. By that evening, she was restless. By day seven, she was distraught. By day fourteen, she was beginning to think she was actually losing her mind.

Ruby sat alone in the closet, which seemed to get smaller every day until it felt like an oppressive narrow space that wanted to squeeze the life out of her. Neo was collecting rainwater again, so Ruby was alone with her thoughts. She'd spent every moment of the last two weeks in this closet either taking care of the basic functions of living like eating and sleeping, or rambling on to her silent companion about what she would be doing instead of rambling on to her silent companion if she had been stuck with anyone other than the silent companion to which she was rambling. The feisty and definitely fun arguments she would be getting into with Weiss, the goofy and definitely fun games she'd play with Yang, and the insightful and definitely fun conversations she and Blake would spend time on. Then she went through Jaune, Nora and Ren. Then she extended it to her uncle Qrow, and her father, and Penny, General Ironwood, Weiss' sister Winter, the various villains and Neo's former cohorts. She caught herself before she started going on about Pyrrha, only to completely forget and do exactly that only two hours later.

She had just gone through the Ace Ops, starting with Marrow and Harriet, then Elm, then Clover, when Neo had stood up and taken the last of the water jugs, now empty, out to refill it. Ruby couldn't help but stew in the feeling, at least for a few minutes, that she'd missed one of the Ace Ops, but she couldn't think of who. After she shook the feeling off, however, she found herself sitting and staring at the door, waiting for it to open briefly and relieve her of the feeling like she was being swallowed by the closet, only for the momentary relief to once again collapse when the door closed. Lately, that had been the only thing occupying her mind when she wasn't talking about something, anything, other than their actual current situation. She felt trapped, and it was really starting to play tricks on her mind. She just hadn't noticed until now.

Fiddling with the rope in her hands, which she remembered finding early on in their confinement, Ruby pondered how it had gotten the way it was. She had found it in her restless rooting around earlier in the day, tied in a suspicious loop. She knew it hadn't been that way when she'd first seen it, but there was only the two of them, so it cast an air of uncertainty over her that had her on edge. Neo had been silent, as always, but had been increasingly responsive to her chatter. When they slept, it was often in a close embrace. When they talked, Ruby speaking and Neo writing, it was ever more with smiles. Neo looked happy enough, at least considering their state of living. So why was this rope tied in a noose?

The only two answers she could think of were both bad ones. It could be, as she had initially thought, that Neo was actually worse off than her when it came to her mental state, and was just good at hiding it. She didn't like this possibility at all, as it told her Neo was getting ever closer to removing herself from the scene, and it scared her almost as much as the second possibility. She had begun to wonder if, somehow, she had made it and just forgot. Ruby sat there, staring at the door in anticipation for Neo's return, struggling with the question of which one of them had tied a noose. It frightened her more than she knew how to say that, increasingly, she was not sure if she hadn't been the one to do it.

Neo opened the door and stepped back inside, closing it behind her. She set the filled water jug down and slid it over to the wall with her foot as she pulled her hair free from where she'd stuffed it down the back of her shirt so it wouldn't blow around in the wind. She looked across the closet, the walls dimly lit by the oil lamp hanging from one side, to see Ruby staring up at her almost like she hadn't expected to see Neo again. She was holding a piece of rope in her hands, tied in a noose. Ruby looked sickly tired, worried, and nervous. She had been deteriorating faster than, frankly, made any sense to Neo. Holing up in a well stocked closet for a few weeks shouldn't have had that much of a toll on her, but somehow it had.

It wasn't really like Neo could blame her. Every time Neo closed her eyes, she felt her skin crawl and itch. Every time the light went out, she felt like she was suffocating. Every time she woke up, she felt the ghost sensation of a vine wrapped around her throat. She hadn't mentioned any of this to Ruby, and she wasn't about to, but just the walls themselves were starting to feel like they were closing in on her, and every day she would sink further into the closet, closer to the back, where it would swallow her. She knew better, she knew that it was the result of their encounter with the plant monster in the sewer, and she knew that it was perfectly reasonable and not at all representative of what was actually happening around her, and that made it easier to handle. Easier, however, didn't always mean easy. Neo was still having nightmares, which she never shared with Ruby. She was still seeing things moving in the shadows and out of the corners of her eyes, which she never shared with Ruby. She sometimes found herself fiddling with things, idly working her hands over something, sometimes for hours without realizing it. That was why, when she saw the noose in Ruby's hands, Neo was scared that Ruby had made it with intent to use it, but she was more scared that she had made it herself and didn't remember.

She had to give Ruby something to do, to get her mind off of things. She picked up one of the empty water jugs and walked over to Ruby, thrusting the jug into her hands. Ruby nodded, understanding. She got up and headed to the door, stopping just short of opening it. She looked down at her hand to see she'd looped the noose around her wrist. Grimacing, Ruby glanced back to Neo. The rope trailed across the floor, past Neo's feet, and over the boxes near the back to where the rest of its length was coiled up on the floor in the back corner. Sheepishly, Ruby returned it to its place, dropping it out of sight before turning and hurrying out of the room to collect some more water for them.

Once she was out in the hallway, the door closed behind her, she took a moment to breathe. Ruby liked being out in the open well enough, but it wasn't like she had ever suffered from claustrophobia. Not until now, anyway, it seemed. Being free from the tomb-like closet allowed her time to breathe and think without it feeling like some great darkness was eyeing her hungrily, and after a minute, she was able to reasonably come to the conclusion that she had in fact not tied the noose herself. That was a tremendous relief, and lifted a great weight from her mind... only for the dreadful conclusion to bring everything crashing back down. If she didn't, then Neo had, and she'd just left Neo alone in the closet. She dropped the jug and frantically pulled the door open, rushing in to stop whatever might have been about to happen.

The air in the closet was filled with panic and struggle, Neo clawing at the rope that had closed around her neck, holding her several feet off the floor. Fast as lightning, Ruby grabbed Crescent Rose and opened it, swinging for the rope and cutting it in half, causing Neo to drop back to the floor, gasping for air. Ruby rushed to her side, helping her pull the rope off from around her neck, but the moment Neo had recovered enough to get up she clamored away from the back wall and towards the door. Ruby was left in the middle of the closet, holding the severed noose. She looked back at the terrified Neo, then to the rope that slowly fell back to the floor from where it had been looped over a rafter.

Slowly, the rope was drawn back into the darkness. A thick green cloud poured into the closet through the wooden back wall, carried on a warm breeze.


	10. The Stolen Arm

Ruby didn't know what the green cloud was, but she got the distinct feeling she didn't want it touching her or Neo. She scooped up her small companion and bolted out the door. As she ran, she heard the wooden wall behind her cracking and splintering. Out in the shopfront, she set Neo inside a small recess in the wall and turned back to confront whatever it was that had decided to begin assaulting them.

The back of the building was crumbling around it, brick and wood turning to dust and falling to the ground. The dark clouded sky became visible as the roof fell away, revealing the mass of an abomination. Its electric blue eyes twisted on stocks, its gaping mouth lined with teeth that glinted like cold steel, and the ominous green gas poured out from its gullet like some chemical weapon long since outlawed by the international community. The way the wooden floor blistered and rotted when the gas touched it told her everything she needed to know. In horror, she watched as the noose slid up and into the creature's mouth.

Spears and pikes rose up from its back like spines. Its feet were arrays of razor saw blades. Its spindly arms ended in hands with hypodermic needles, several of them filled with ugly liquids. Through the knives and swords that made up its ravenous jaws, Ruby could see what its innards looked like; a metal chamber with a chair in the center, clamps where the arms and legs would rest, and the whole thing hooked up to wires that sparked with electricity. A guillotine blade dropped in its throat, cutting off her line of sight with the chair, but drawing her attention to another awful part of the creature. It had a tail, a long wooden stake that jutted straight up, more ropes wrapped around it, and a lit fire smoldering under it, just waiting to go up. The tip of the tail held an axe blade, and every once in a while the blade would slash down and cut into a wooden block among the pikes on the monster's back. All along its gross body, between rows of small feathers, a thick black tar oozed out onto the ground.

This was not the same as the plant monster. That thing was, well, a plant. It was made of living stuff, familiar and real, even if horrific. This was something entirely different. A true abomination. It was made of death, tools of execution. The storm raged around them, winds wrapping around Ruby and rain pelting her face so hard it stung. Ruby took in everything she was seeing in a matter of seconds, the abomination sizing her up at the same time. She didn't know how to fight this thing. She couldn't tell what its weak points were. So she decided she would have to just tear it apart piece by piece until it stopped moving.

It lunged, launching its noose tongue at her. Ruby ducked under the rope, rolling to the side as a number of needle points dug into the ground beside her. It lifted a foot and stomped down on top of Ruby, but she was gone before it could hit. Glowering blue eyes searched around for their prey, finding her in the air. Ruby twisted around and aimed her weapon down at the monster, firing at its thick hide. The shots stuck in, but didn't seem to damage it. Quickly unfolding the scythe again, she spun around and slashed at the needled hands that reached for her, batting them away. She hit the ground and jumped back just in time to avoid being shredded by the abomination's feet again.

Looking behind her to where Neo was still recovering, Ruby shouted. "Get up! I need your help!"

Neo moved, slowly, pushing herself up to her feet. Ruby needed her to move faster than that, but more importantly, she needed to move herself. Bladed teeth snapped the air where she had been standing. Ruby had leapt back towards Neo, now standing right in front of her and switching her weapon up. It didn't seem like the shells she had used really did any damage. Really, it looked like they'd been absorbed into the body. Since it was made of instruments of death, it made sense in a way that shooting it would be about as effective as hitting a person with fingers. If that was the case, she thought, then best to gouge out the eyes first.

Planting the blade of her weapon in the floor, Ruby tilted the sniper scythe back and aimed up at the glowing blue eyes. It was getting close to cornering them, so blinding it would be a really big help right now. Once she was sure she was aimed right, she fired. The abomination's left eye shattered in a shower of sparks, and the whole thing lurched back and let out a shriek that would paralyze Grimm with fear, a sound like thousands of metal blades sharpening against each other, gears screeching to a halt till stripped bare, and electric arcs setting flesh ablaze, all mixed into one. It sure looked like it was distracted.

Only the front wall of the building was mostly intact, the shopfront window having shattered completely and the roof having taken most of the rest of the building with it. The wall they'd been backed against was really the only other part of the house still somewhat together. Still, Neo rushed out the front door, and Ruby was right behind her. The blasting wind and rain was not about to let up, though Ruby noticed that it wasn't as bad as it had been at times. Definitely inclement weather, a real problem for visibility and mobility, but it wouldn't simply lift them into the air or flatten them. At least for now.

Ducking between two other buildings, Ruby turned back to face where the abomination should have been. She couldn't see it for all the rain, which was moving pretty much sideways. That didn't stop it from pouring off the roofs above her in a constant waterfall that drenched her completely, for what little of her was still dry after the shop had collapsed. An endless sheet of water was being dumped on her head, but instead of sputter or try to get away from it all, Ruby crouched down. The entire world in front of her was grey, her eyes were blurred by exhaustion and water cascading down on and in front of her, she was freezing cold, but now was not the time to shift her position. Now was the time to wait for her foe.

Through the grey endless streaks of rain, she saw the blue glint of the abomination's eye. Judging by the size of the light, she figured it was standing about where the front door had been. Ever so slightly, she angled her sniper rifle upward, peering through the scope. She could barely see, but soon, even that would be a leg up on her enemy. Soaking wet, she felt a surge of energy warming her body, like a predator on the hunt. She began to squeeze her finger on the trigger, then stopped. The eye turned, looking around for her, but it seemed like it was having as hard a time as she was navigating in this weather. Without a glowing spot on its target, it couldn't find her at all. She grinned, half bearing her teeth in a show of ferocity, half smiling at the ease with which this battle had been handed to her. She led the eye by just enough to adjust for the mad winds, not much at this distance, but she was now confident she would shatter the glowing blue center of the eye and not see her shot glance off the metal casing around the outside.

She stopped a second time. Unlike last time, it wasn't to readjust her aim. This time, she was stuck on something that had strangely occurred to her. That eye... and the one she'd already taken. The electric eye twitched, a metal shutter closing over it, like an eyelid. Even through the rain, she could see it clear enough. There was no doubt. That was the same bionic eye as Maria's.

Ruby shook her head. It couldn't be Maria's. Surely Pietro Polendina had made more than one set of eyes that looked like that. So, somehow it had taken those eyes and added them to its body? No, that didn't make sense. Ruby remembered all the things on and in its body. Its very essence was death machines. There would be no sense in taking those eyes unless... unless it took them straight from the ultimate machine of death, The Grimm Reaper. This was the first sign of another person she had seen since finding Neo, and Ruby got the sense that she had just learned what happened to the people of Mantle. Abominations like this one, and the plant monster, had killed them. But they couldn't have killed everyone. There seemed so few of them, and Ruby had been able to kill one already with only Neo aiding her. Maria was a casualty, Ruby was sure of it, but that didn't have to mean everyone was.

The thoughts of Maria had distracted Ruby. When she refocused on her target, she noticed that the rain had cleared up a lot. A sickly warm breeze washed over her, metal blades jangling in the air. The maw of knives loomed over her, moments from snapping down on her head. There was no way out. Ruby knew it was over. She'd let herself get distracted, and forgotten her prey. Her prey, meanwhile, had not forgotten her. That was it. It was over.

Ruby closed her eyes.

_"So, that's all it takes to make you give_ up."

Ruby's eyes snapped open. That voice. It couldn't be. Sultry, seductive, teasing, and sadistic. It couldn't be any other voice than Cinder's. She snapped to attention, looking up at the abomination standing over her, just in time to see a long black arm stretch through the air and clamp down on the remaining eye, claws digging into the meaty part underneath. The hand clenched into a fist, and tore the eye out, trailing wires and yellow fluids. The beast of death recoiled horribly, shaking and sprawling out across the street.

The way ahead of Ruby was clear. She stood up and staggered out into the street, turning to look to her left. She saw the Grimm arm shrinking back towards its owner, electric eye in hand. Wind whipping around her, causing her red dress to go wild, and her soaked black hair madly fluttering in every direction. Ruby recognized the fierce glimmer of power in her eye. It was Cinder.

She couldn't do it. Not yet. She didn't know where Neo had gone, but if Ruby was to defeat the abomination, she would need help. If not Neo, Cinder would do. She had already demonstrated her willingness to battle it, so perhaps she would put off fighting Ruby until that was finished. Readying her weapon, Ruby turned to the abomination as it began to stand again. Her eyes turned away from Cinder for a moment, and something changed.

Cinder dropped the eye on the ground, letting whatever power it had left fizzle away in a puddle. She stepped to Ruby's side and produced a weapon. The same pink and white parasol Ruby had seen with Neo time and again. She shouldered the weapon, and her form melted away, revealing Neo. Her eyes were the last thing to change, in a blink, from fiery orange to pink and white.

Ruby sighed. "What a terrible prank. Let's kill this thing."


End file.
